dawlex
Star Member
- Aug 15, 2012
- 4
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Vegreville, AB
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 15-Feb-2013
- AOR Received.
- 06-Mar-2013
- File Transfer...
- 07-Mar-2013 <br><i>- to Vancouver CIC (BRO)</i>
- Med's Request
- 16-May-2013<br><i>- sent with original application</i>
- Med's Done....
- 11-Jan-2013
- Interview........
- 29-Apr-2013 (at Local CIC) <br><i> - AIP verbally approved at interview !! </i><br>AIP & OWP Rec'd: 10-May-2013<br>RCMP Check Req'd: 02-Aug-2013 <br><i>- sent 14-Aug-2013</i><br>DM: Rec'd letter 24-Oct-2013 <br><i>- letter dated 21-Oct-2012</i><br>Landing Interview/PR Rec'd: 12-Nov-2013<br>Rec'd PR card in mail: 18-01-2012
(i hope i post this properly... sorry if i didnt... confused newbie here)
Hi, just found this board a few days ago and have been reading lots but still have questions and looking for any advice, suggestions etc. Here's my story... (sorry if it's long)
I am a 45y/o Canadian, my fiance is a 38y/o Jamaican and we are both currently living in Ontario. We met in 2004 while he was on the farm labour program and working in Canada for 8 months of the year. We saw each other all of 2004 and 2005 but for the 2006 season, the farm he worked on downsized and they did not call him back to work ... so I visited him in Jamaica (and ran up huge phone bills afterwards) but continued the relationship in hopes he would get called back the next year... During that time, we had started talking about getting married so we could be together but the problem was that when he was 19y/o he married a girl in Jamaica - it didn't work out and they separated within the year and never bothered to get legally divorced. He filed for his divorce in Jamaica in late 2006 and it finally finalized in Oct 2011 (yes, 2011! not a typo..the lawyer he hired in Jamaica got into some sort of trouble and all his cases were frozen and he went MIA.. big headache but alas it's done) - we have documentation to prove this btw..
While he was in Jamaica, we broke up for about a year in 2008 (the stress of the neverending divorce mess, the long distance, expenses piling up, and mostly just being with someone you couldn't be with etc just became too much for me to deal with) but we started talking again in 2009. In 2010, by chance he was called back to work on the farm labour program and we started seeing each other again.. this time... while he was here in Canada, we decided that we would get married and hired a new lawyer in Jamaica and again started straightening out the mess that his divorce had become before they shipped him back home again. When he got notified that his job was finishing.. the new lawyer was telling us it would only be another "2 weeks" before his divorce would be final... so he left the farm and came to live with me before they could send him home. We assumed we could be soon married and file for spousal sponsorship and get him into somewhat legal status before his visa expired.. but the "2 weeks" turned into almost another year before it finalized and we got the final decree in our hands from the Jamaican courts (Oct 2011).
However, since that time, his work visa has expired (nov 2010), and now so has his passport (feb 2012).
We then discovered that since he was divorced outside of Canada, in order for us to even apply for a marriage license, we had to hire a lawyer in Ontario to verify his divorce was legal in Canada and then send in documentation to Ontario govt to obtain 'authorization to apply for a marriage license' - pretty standard procedure apparently. We have done this step and are hoping to get the authorization back soon and be married by the end of sept or early oct 2012 and then immediately afterwards, I will file for spousal sponsorship for him.
Even though we know he is not supposed to, he has been able to find seasonal, but fairly steady cash work off and on to help with the costs of things, but I have been the main financial support for us so we haven't been able to save as much and move on this as quick as we had hoped.
We have now saved up enough $$ to get married and pay for all the sponsorship fees/application/medical expenses that we will need for the sponsorship application and are excited to finally start the process.
Sooooo... since I found this wonderful and very helpful active forum, I have been reading other ppls stories and learning a lot about what to expect, but I have not found any story similar to mine.. so I am now questioning whether we are going about this the best way and trying to get as much info as I can beforehand to avoid any more unneccessary complications.
Some of my questions are:
1. Should we use the inbound or outbound application (he is here in canada, but illegal status - visa and passport both expired now - we would both REALLY prefer that he stay in Canada though during the entire process even if it takes longer)
2. How much trouble are we in because he overstayed his visa? - we honestly did not expect all the complications from his divorce taking so long ... we are worried about this. How is immigration going to feel about the length of time he has been 'illegal' before we married and started the process?
3. What are the chances will they deport him and send him back to Jamaica while our application is being processed?
4. Suggestions on the best way to fix his illegal status after we are married ? Is him being married to a Canadian with the spousal sponsorship papers filed good enough? Can we apply for a visitor visa or something similar while the sponsorship application is being processed to ensure he is not sent home? Also, does anyone know if we can renew his Jamaican passport from Canada even? He can't even leave on his own right now because his passport has expired.. I've read being deported REALLY complicates things... we really need to fix this.
5. Is there anything else we need to be doing to better prepare for this long road ahead of us?
Those are the main questions I have off the top of my head .. but I know there are lots more... we welcome any comments or suggestions from those who have been thru this process because we are going into this blind and just hoping that we can be honest and explain why and what we have been thru to get to this point .. not so sure that will be 'ok' and sit well with immigration tho... following the CIC website instructions is more laid out for those with legal status so I am here looking for answers and advice.
Any help, or advice TRULY and greatly appreciated and Congrats to those who have successfully been thru the process
Hi, just found this board a few days ago and have been reading lots but still have questions and looking for any advice, suggestions etc. Here's my story... (sorry if it's long)
I am a 45y/o Canadian, my fiance is a 38y/o Jamaican and we are both currently living in Ontario. We met in 2004 while he was on the farm labour program and working in Canada for 8 months of the year. We saw each other all of 2004 and 2005 but for the 2006 season, the farm he worked on downsized and they did not call him back to work ... so I visited him in Jamaica (and ran up huge phone bills afterwards) but continued the relationship in hopes he would get called back the next year... During that time, we had started talking about getting married so we could be together but the problem was that when he was 19y/o he married a girl in Jamaica - it didn't work out and they separated within the year and never bothered to get legally divorced. He filed for his divorce in Jamaica in late 2006 and it finally finalized in Oct 2011 (yes, 2011! not a typo..the lawyer he hired in Jamaica got into some sort of trouble and all his cases were frozen and he went MIA.. big headache but alas it's done) - we have documentation to prove this btw..
While he was in Jamaica, we broke up for about a year in 2008 (the stress of the neverending divorce mess, the long distance, expenses piling up, and mostly just being with someone you couldn't be with etc just became too much for me to deal with) but we started talking again in 2009. In 2010, by chance he was called back to work on the farm labour program and we started seeing each other again.. this time... while he was here in Canada, we decided that we would get married and hired a new lawyer in Jamaica and again started straightening out the mess that his divorce had become before they shipped him back home again. When he got notified that his job was finishing.. the new lawyer was telling us it would only be another "2 weeks" before his divorce would be final... so he left the farm and came to live with me before they could send him home. We assumed we could be soon married and file for spousal sponsorship and get him into somewhat legal status before his visa expired.. but the "2 weeks" turned into almost another year before it finalized and we got the final decree in our hands from the Jamaican courts (Oct 2011).
However, since that time, his work visa has expired (nov 2010), and now so has his passport (feb 2012).
We then discovered that since he was divorced outside of Canada, in order for us to even apply for a marriage license, we had to hire a lawyer in Ontario to verify his divorce was legal in Canada and then send in documentation to Ontario govt to obtain 'authorization to apply for a marriage license' - pretty standard procedure apparently. We have done this step and are hoping to get the authorization back soon and be married by the end of sept or early oct 2012 and then immediately afterwards, I will file for spousal sponsorship for him.
Even though we know he is not supposed to, he has been able to find seasonal, but fairly steady cash work off and on to help with the costs of things, but I have been the main financial support for us so we haven't been able to save as much and move on this as quick as we had hoped.
We have now saved up enough $$ to get married and pay for all the sponsorship fees/application/medical expenses that we will need for the sponsorship application and are excited to finally start the process.
Sooooo... since I found this wonderful and very helpful active forum, I have been reading other ppls stories and learning a lot about what to expect, but I have not found any story similar to mine.. so I am now questioning whether we are going about this the best way and trying to get as much info as I can beforehand to avoid any more unneccessary complications.
Some of my questions are:
1. Should we use the inbound or outbound application (he is here in canada, but illegal status - visa and passport both expired now - we would both REALLY prefer that he stay in Canada though during the entire process even if it takes longer)
2. How much trouble are we in because he overstayed his visa? - we honestly did not expect all the complications from his divorce taking so long ... we are worried about this. How is immigration going to feel about the length of time he has been 'illegal' before we married and started the process?
3. What are the chances will they deport him and send him back to Jamaica while our application is being processed?
4. Suggestions on the best way to fix his illegal status after we are married ? Is him being married to a Canadian with the spousal sponsorship papers filed good enough? Can we apply for a visitor visa or something similar while the sponsorship application is being processed to ensure he is not sent home? Also, does anyone know if we can renew his Jamaican passport from Canada even? He can't even leave on his own right now because his passport has expired.. I've read being deported REALLY complicates things... we really need to fix this.
5. Is there anything else we need to be doing to better prepare for this long road ahead of us?
Those are the main questions I have off the top of my head .. but I know there are lots more... we welcome any comments or suggestions from those who have been thru this process because we are going into this blind and just hoping that we can be honest and explain why and what we have been thru to get to this point .. not so sure that will be 'ok' and sit well with immigration tho... following the CIC website instructions is more laid out for those with legal status so I am here looking for answers and advice.
Any help, or advice TRULY and greatly appreciated and Congrats to those who have successfully been thru the process
